a. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to automatic ignition devices and, more particularly, to an automatic repeatable ignitor for starting fires in orchard heaters or the like.
B. Prior Art Description
In the patent literature of ignitors for orchard heaters there appeared to be no devices which could be remotely compared with the existing disclosed device. The art of record showed several patents of a somewhat pertinent nature but which do not operate the same nor are used for the same purpose. In the search were found U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,485,394, 2,208,496, 2,470,117 and 2,207,635. The last two patents being in class 89-1, and considered to be good references to the herein disclosed invention.
Since the patent search indicated that the present invention is novel, a study made in the practical art, which stimulated the creation of the present concept, showed the development of electrical igniting devices for lighting the fires in the orchard heaters. However, electrical lighters require electrical conduits or cables which have to be buried in the ground between the fruit trees. The fruit farmers object to the underground wiring since it is customary that after the harvest is completed, all the soil is cleared from the undergrowth and tilled for absorbance of oxygen, etc. The farm equipment would dig and hit the lines and the resulting shorts, shocks or later fires from damages wires, etc. are too objectionable. In addition, the electrical devices utilize electrodes which act unreliably during the frost period when the firing of the heaters takes place. Furthermore, the present invention does away with the individual fuel containers which would not be resolved by the electrical concept.
Accordingly, the electrical systems that were invented and experimented with have been discontinued since they were unsuccessful and the farmers are returning to the old system of employing a few youngsters for lighting manually all the hundreds of heaters at the first frost forecasts that are received for their particular location.